Howard Schiffer’s story about how Vitamin Angels came to be is an inspirational one. Originally, Howard was a part of the home birth movement. Because he was under such scrutiny by the medical establishment, he began doing intense nutritional research that led him to the natural products industry. He began to develop and sell nutritional supplements and was very successful.

When the 1994 Northridge earthquake hit, he received a phone call from a local relief agency. They told him that they were concerned about the displaced migrant families near the earthquake. The families were living in very poor conditions and the agency was worried that the children would get sick. They asked Howard to make a donation of nutritional supplements to help boost the immune systems of the kids. He made a few calls and the relief agency called him the next day asking incredulously how he had done it – three pallets of vitamins had been delivered. An idea began to form and Vitamin Angels was born.

Howard Schiffer later learned that 2 capsules of high dose vitamin A (200,000 IU) could prevent children from going blind and save lives. When he realized that it was merely 2 capsules per year that was needed, he set to work saving lives.

Rainbow Light partnered with Howard from the beginning. Linda Kahler, Rainbow Light’s President, donated 24,000 bottles of prenatal vitamins in 1994, reaching an estimated 100,000 women. She worked with Howard to make on-going contributions toward maternal health that continues to this day. Rainbow Light works together with Vitamin Angels to support a high-impact global aid program to fight malnutrition and improve maternal and infant survival rates in impoverished communities.

In 2011, we expanded our program to include children’s health. We now include our Kids One Multivitamins™ in our ongoing contribution. We currently donate our children’s vitamin to kids in the United States, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Ethiopia. We hear from our partners at Vitamin Angels about children and women who were once malnourished and are now “chubby babies” after receiving our supplements. We love chubby babies.

We continue to be inspired by Howard’s story, and we hope you are too. For more information about Vitamin Angels or to donate, go tohttp://www.vitaminangels.org/.